Covers have long been employed in connection with bedding items such as quilts, blankets, comforters, duvets and the like to enclose and protect such bedding items. Such covers are generally made of a sheet like easily launderable material sewn into a bag dimensioned to accommodate one of the aforementioned bedding items. The use of such covers serves to minimize required laundering and/or dry cleaning of the bedding item, and often serves to provide a decorative facade for the item. Thus, relatively bulky and hard to clean bedding items such as feather blankets or comforters can be enclosed in a cover which can readily be removed for laundering at frequent intervals as desired, while the covered bedding item will require cleaning at relatively infrequent intervals.
Problems arise in positioning the cover over the bedding item. Thus, the typical cover is formed of two rectangular sheets formed of a conventional textile sheeting material such as woven cotton, linen, synthetic fibers and combinations thereof. This sheet material is sewn into a rectangular bag closed along three sides and open at one end. In use, the blanket or like bedding item has to be manipulated into the open end of the bag forming the cover. This can be done by sliding one edge of the bedding item into the opening up to the closed end of the bag, gripping the corners of the cover and blanket in the cover and smoothing the blanket out inside the cover to match the corners of the blanket with the corners of the cover. This often proves difficult resulting in a bunching of the blanket in the cover. Alternatively, the cover may be turned inside out width the interior corners remote from the cover opening positioned over the blanket corners which are intended to lie at these corners in the cover, and thereafter turning the cover right side out by sliding the cover down over the blanket while holding the corners which have previously been positioned. This too presents manipulative problems and does not avoid bunching.
Attempts have been made in the past to minimize the above problems by providing some sort of retaining element for holding a cover in position with respect to the bedding item.
Thus, Sussman in U.S. Pat. No. 2,183,360 discloses a quilt cover formed with button holes designed to receive buttons sewn to the upper edge of the quilt so that the buttons on the quilt can be engaged with the buttonholes and the cover to retain the covered quilt in desired position.
Belsky in U.S. Pat. No. 2,505,027 discloses what he describes as an improvement in use of buttons and buttonholes, safety pins, and snaps residing in the provision of clips held by snaps inside the cover with the clip employed to engage a blanket positioned in the cover.
Picon in U.S. Pat. No. 2,737,667 discloses a clip for holding a blanket cover in position ion a blanket in which the clip is clipped over the outside corners of the cover when the blanket is positioned therein to maintain the desired corner orientation of the blanket within the cover.
Aiken in U.S. Pat. No. 3,296,668 discloses a clip which serves to secure a sheet in position on a bed in a smooth orientation.
Yamashiro in U.S. Pat. No. 2,022,169 discloses a bedding clamp for retaining a top sheet in position between a blanket and the bed occupant.
These previously developed clips, button and buttonhole arrangements, snaps or other fastening arrangements have proven unwieldy and have not come into common usage. It is believed that these prior fastening arrangements have proven undesirable because they either require specific pairing of the cover with the bedding item as in the case of mating snaps, zippers, buttons and buttonholes or the like so that a specific cover structure is required for the bedding item which has been formed with a button, snap or zipper half intended to match with the corresponding part on the cover. Where previously evolved clips had been employed, such clips on the exterior of the cover abrade the adjacent linen on the bed and often scratch the occupant.
It is with the above considerations in mind that the present improved bedding clip and method of employing the clip to facilitate positioning of a cover on a bedding item such as a blanket, quilt, comforter or duvet has been evolved serving to insure desired positioning of the corners of the bedding item in the interior corners of the cover without interfering with desired smoothness of the covered bedding item or increasing any wear and tear on the assembled cover and bedding item.
It is accordingly a primary object of this invention to provide means for retaining a bedding item such as a blanket, quilt or comforter in a desired orientation within a cover for said bedding item with the corners of the bedding item maintained at a desired position within the cover.
A further object of the invention is to provide an improved clip for engaging a bedding item with respect to a cover which when in use is not exposed to the user of the covered bedding item so as to eliminate the possibility of scratching of the user.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved clip for maintaining a cover with respect to a bedding item in which the clip has a minimal abrasive effect on the assembled cover and bedding item.
An additional object of the invention is to provide an improved method for positioning a cover over a bedding item which facilitates desired orientation of the bedding item in the cover.
These and other objects of the invention which will become hereafter apparent are achieved by providing a clip formed with jaws having padding on the exterior surfaces thereof. In use, a conventional bedding cover of a rectangular bag-like configuration employed to enclose bedding items such as quilts, blankets, comforters and the like is turned inside out, and laid over the bedding item with the corners of the cover aligned with the corners of the bedding item. The interior or closed corners of the everted cover are secured to the corners of the bedding by clipping the cover and bedding corners between the jaws of the clips. Thereafter, the cover is brought down over the bedding item to bring the desired exterior surface of the cover to the outside, thus leaving the clipped corners engaged inside the cover. If desired, the remaining corners of the cover and bedding item may be clipped together, preferably within the cover.
A feature of the invention resides in the fact that the padding on the clips prevents the clips from abrading either the cover or the bedding and further minimizes the possibility of any hard points or corners interfering with the comfort of a sleeper.
Another feature of the invention resides in the fact that the clips facilitate the positioning and maintenance of a cover on an item of bedding such as a blanket or comforter by insuring the orientation of the corners of the bedding items in desired position with respect to the corners of the cover.